Monday, 6 July 2015

Boat trips on the lakes of this city, bicycling from shadows to warm sun. The wind that hymns its summer songs through birch tree leaves with different melodies. Swallows late in the evening. Swimming and reading books, feet in water.Summer Birch Tree -poster available in the small online shop, here.July greetings!

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Summer, even cold so far, Northern magic at home in the East and in Lapland. Trees that get smaller and twisted on the way, people who get more relaxed. The sun that does not set. The visitors with antlers on greener blueberry patches. Secrets of the North.Happy summer!

Thursday, 14 May 2015

The painting table here is covered with green splashes of aquarelle. Trees appear, night and day on my table. Trees are coloured in green dresses also outside by every spring rain drop and sun beam.Greetings & Salutations, An Exhibition in Collaboration with Red Cap Cards, with works by Jon Klassen, Chris Sasaki, Christian Robinson, Becca Stadtlander, Yelena Bryksenkova and me. A few days the exhibition with Red Cap Cards artists is still open at Gallery Nucleus in California, if you happen to be nearby. Or if you are far away, like me, you can still enjoy the show online, here. All the works are also for sale.Thank you Carrie and Jessica for this possibility!Green spring dreams!All the photos by Red Cap Cards.

Friday, 24 April 2015

The last days have been so pretty and warming. Flowers, phone calls, messages of congratulations, hugs. So wide smiles.

This is me on Tuesday evening in beautiful Helsinki. Behind there is a beautiful street leading to a beautiful church. In front of me is beautiful Eili-Kaija that took this photo and behind her is a lovely square market and the sea. On my left, in this beautiful orange old house, there is a gallery, where an exhibition opened just before this photo was taken. In that exhibition opening, I received the Kaiku award, an award of a remarkable breakthrough as an illustrator by The Association of Finnish Illustrators. So grateful, thank you, thank you! Receiving such an award from own colleagues means so much. They know the best how this work is.

Also, two other wonderful illustrators were awarded too. Laila Nevakivi got an award of distinguished teaching material and non-fiction illustrations and Kristiina Louhi received an award of remarkable life's work as an illustrator.

In the exhibition there are works of us all three, original paintings, books, tableware and clothing. The exhibition is open until the 31st of May, 2015 in Virka Galleria, at the Helsinki City Hall. Hopefully you can visit! Please remember to sign the guestbooks if you go.

In the exhibition you can also see three documentary portraits of us three. The small videos were made by Kari Kuukka from DocImages. Here you can see a few screenshots from my video. If you are not able to go to the exhibition, the videos luckily can be watched also online, mine is here, the videos of Kristiina and Laila can be found here.

So happy! That is me on the left, Laila Nevakivi in the middle and Kristiina Louhi on the right. I love their works. Can you imagine, we all work with watercolours on such digital times.

Friday, 10 April 2015

A few coltsfoot, that have popped up from the earth, are more yellow than the Sun, that shines through a misty cloud on its way down behind the city. Orange and purple Crocuses are awake too. The lake is melting every day more, the waves are happy and alive. Glimmering those golden rays of the one hiding shyly behind the misty clouds.Spring Allotment, a new little garden to grow up with, for L'Affiche Moderne, is now available. Its companion painting, Garden of A Moon Gazer, is still available too. Spring Allotment is supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland. Thank you so much!Spring wishes!(The photo by L'Affiche Moderne.)

Tuesday, 17 March 2015

This spring is filled with flora. Clovers, crocuses tied as grandmother's bouquet, apple blossoms blooming in Finnish fir forest. Meadows of green, forget-me-nots here and there. It is my pleasure to show you some of my paintings from a few years back in a new tableware collection for Narumi in Japan. It is a mix-and-match collection with bone china, with some glazed items and also with glass tumblers, the collection to be continued.A new continent, a new big story to tell! Butterflies in my tummy! You can view all the items on Narumi's online store here, available now. Sorry only in Japanese!Spring has been arriving lately with bright blue sky and warming golden sunshine. Tonight, maybe some Northern Lights appear. With a thermo bottle of hot tea and wrapped in wool I walk to stare the sky.Arigato Narumi!Happy spring!(1st, 4th, 6th and 7th images by Narumi Corporation.)

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Big grey clouds in the horizon, waiting new snow to arrive. Teacup in hand, window open. They sing so wildly already, opening their voices, the spring birds. Every day new sounds and more flying.A little sneak peak to the local stores, to their collection of spring on textile and on tableware. More to tell about these soon! Secret wild gardens and summer birds.Red Cap Cards made a small interview about me, you can read it here and here. Thank you Carrie and Andie!Happy melodies!